352 Correspondence — Proceedings of Societies. 



I fancy I have worked out pretty well that the great coal deposits 

 of Bengal (Burdwan, &c.) are of the older oolitic era, (to compare 

 Indian with European groups). We found fossils last season, 

 which, as far as I can see, are identical with those from Cutch, 

 described by Morris in the Transactions of the Geological Society, 

 vol. v. (Ptilophylla), in the same beds containing Vertebraria and 

 the common coal-series plants of Bengal. Now, though vegetable 

 remains are but poor evidence after all, they are something. And 

 as the Cutch ones are truly oolitic, I am inclined to refer the 

 whole group to that period." 



Gutta Percha in India. Extract of a letter from Dr Hugh 

 Cleghorn, Madras, to Professor Balfour, dated 13th 

 January 1855. 



c< Three days ago, my friend Colonel Cotton, of the Madras En- 

 gineers, sent me a piece of Gutta Percha from the Wynaad, with a 

 twig of the tree producing it, which is a true Isonandra. I have 

 on the table — both the gum-elastic and the branchlet — abundant 

 proof of the important discovery. It is believed that the tree 

 grows abundantly in Malabar. I have requested that a diligent 

 search should be made. As telegraphic lines stretch across our 

 Peninsula, the importance of the discovery can scarcely be over- 

 rated, now that the forests of Singapore are wellnigh exhausted. 

 The government will take means to preserve a wholesale destruc- 

 tion in the present instance, by making the forest a royalty, or at 

 all events placing the trees under strict conservancy. I await 

 with deep interest further intelligence from the distinguished en- 

 gineer as to the extent of the gutta percha forests.'' 



PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

 Tuesday, 2d January 1855. Right Rev. Bishop Terrot, in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read-. — 



i. Notes on some of the Buddhist Opinions and Monuments of Asia, 

 compared with the Symbols on the Ancient Sculptured " Standing 

 Stones" of Scotland. By Thomas A. Wise, M.D. 



The general identity, in idea and design, of the ancient monuments of 

 southern and western Europe with those of Hindostan, was shown and 

 illustrated by drawings of cairns, barrows, kist-vaens, cromlechs, circles 



